Dynamics in Affinity-Weighted Preferential Attachment Networks

During the formation process of stochastic networks, nodes tend to establish edges based on selective linkage mechanisms. In general, these mechanisms involve probability distributions that underlie the selection of target nodes. In social networks, edges are often associated to relationships that are homophilic with respect to individual traits. Such traits include, for example, gender and age, and are referred to as node types. Our work considers an affinity-weighted preferential attachment model that characterizes the tendency of two group of nodes to connect to other nodes of the same type. We derive mathematical expressions for the dynamics and convergence of homophily measures at the node, group, and network level. Furthermore, we characterize the convergence of network modularity and show that the formation of community structures can be expressed as a function of network homophily.